The Resistance is the fifth full-length studio album by Muse, and a 2011 Grammy Award-winner for "Best Rock Album."

Like previous Muse albums it draws from a wide range of genres and influences, including glam rock, R&B, disco and classical.

The album was recorded in Lake Como and Milan, Italy, between late-2008 and mid-2009. On the 21st June 2008, Chris announced that although band had five or six new songs for the new album, they had not heard any of Matt's lyrics for the songs, saying that he's sure "he already has them in his head and that they are dark, as always".

Matt stated he would like "at least one 15-minute space-rock solo" and "dancing, grooving, rhythm section-dominated songs". He later confirmed that he was indeed working on a 14 minute long "progressive" song that was "like a slimy opera version [of previous Muse songs]", which Dom called a "symphonic monster". Matt implied this song was difficult to compose as he was arranging the orchestral elements himself due to the fear of a composer changing the music. The song, if finished, will be in three parts at the end of the album. Dom has said that the song "starts quite mellow and ends up very heavy indeed whilst moving through a few genres to get there." On 3rd July 2009, this song was revealed to be the three-track symphony Exogenesis.